something assumed to be true that can be used to build a logical argument

Her logic is fine except that it assumes a false premise.

Her argument rests on two premises.

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I pulled at his sleeve, and we were followed up the sidewalk by a philippic on our family’s moral degeneration, the major premise of which was that half the Finches were in the asylum anyway, but if our mother were living we would not have come to such a state.

She premised her remarks by thanking the executive committee for their work.

She will premise her remarks with...

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But apart from temporary aberration, the doctor diagnosed mania, which premised, in his words, to lead to complete insanity in the future.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- The Brothers Karamazov

But here be it premised, that owing to the unwearied activity with which of late they have been hunted over all four oceans, the Sperm Whales, instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached companies, as in former times, are now frequently met with in extensive herds, sometimes embracing so great a multitude, that it would almost seem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and covenant for mutual assistance and protection.

Herman Melville -- Moby Dick

Everything that she, Baby Kochamma, had done, had been premised on one assumption.

Arundhati Roy -- The God of Small Things

And, thirdly, old Arthur premised that the girl was a delicate and beautiful creature, and that he had really a hankering to have her for his wife.

Charles Dickens -- Nicholas Nickleby

Having premised thus much, we will now detain those who like our bill of fare no longer from their diet, and shall proceed directly to serve up the first course of our history for their entertainment.

Henry Fielding -- Tom Jones

For it must be premised that while the Major was lying ill at Madras, having made such prodigious haste to go thither, the gallant —th, which had passed many years abroad, which after its return from the West Indies had been baulked of its stay at home by the Waterloo campaign, and had been ordered from Flanders to India, had received orders home; and the Major might have accompanied his comrades, had he chosen to wait for their arrival at Madras.

William Makepeace Thackeray -- Vanity Fair

Little need be premised about Tibby.

E.M. Forster -- Howards End

I have already premised that, after having examined the constitution of the township and the county of New England in detail, I should take a general view of the remainder of the Union.

Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 1

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’After premising thus much, it would be a work of supererogation to add, that dust and ashes are for ever scattered ’On ’The ’Head ’Of ’WILKINS MICAWBER.’

Charles Dickens -- David Copperfield

The naturalist raised his tablets to the heavens, and disposed himself to read as well as he could, by the dim light they yet shed upon the plain; premising with saying— "Listen, girl, and you shall hear, with what a treasure it has been my happy lot to enrich the pages of natural history!"

James Fenimore Cooper -- The Prairie

’Now,’ said Jeremiah; ’premising that I’m not going to stand between you two, will you let me ask (as I have been called in, and made a third) what is all this about?’

Charles Dickens -- Little Dorrit

Premising this, I proceed to lay it down as a rule, that one man of discernment is better fitted to analyze and estimate the peculiar qualities adapted to particular offices, than a body of men of equal or perhaps even of superior discernment.

land and buildings together -- especially of a business or organization

She was injured on the premises of the defendant.

Will you now do me the favor of leaving the premises?

Harper Lee -- Go Set a Watchman

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Against the fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson, had Miss Maudie deigned to permit a geranium on her premises.

Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

He refuses to do any copying; he refuses to do any thing; he says he prefers not to; and he refuses to quit the premises.

Herman Melville -- Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street

"Then," I said, "you have been making a miscalculation, and the letter is not upon the premises, as you suppose."

Edgar Allan Poe -- The Purloined Letter

Miss Frutti said she’d know a Maycomb voice anywhere, and there were no Maycomb voices in that parlor last night— rolling their r’s all over her premises, they were.